Selling online with minimal investment is now possible thanks to affiliate networks (likeClickbank or Commission Junction) and pay per click advertisers (like Google AdWords). They provide you with few useful tools from which you can make online selling simple, and you can gain some hands-on experience.

Targeted traffic to your site with Google AdWords

Using Google AdWords you can generate relevant traffic to your affiliate landing pages. In other words, once you sign up with Clickbank or Commission Junction and get your affiliate ID, you can link your Adwords ads directly to the sell pages of the companies you are affiliated with, and you will receive credit for any resulting sales.

How Do You Advertise?

You have to sign up with Google AdWords. This only takes a few minutes, and requires a small activation fee of $5. You can start creating your ads immediately after sign-up. Your ads will look like the ones you see to the right of the Google search results pages, and will have this format:

For example, if the product you want to sell is "new and used books", you should make those words the headline of your ad (or at least include them in the headline). The description fields must be filled with marketing text that entices your prospects to click (tip: you should avoid the word "free" since you want to attract paying customers). Finally, you must include a Display URL, which can be the web address of the company whose products you are selling. This URL is not that important (it is only referential) since your ad will actually be linked to your Destination URL (which includes your affiliate ID). Your ad, therefore, will look like this:

How to choose keywords or keyphrases?

After you create your ad, you have to choose the keywords or keyphrases that will trigger Google to display it. These will be the words that you believe prospects will use to search for your product. Some keyphrases will be very competitive and will require you to pay top dollar per click. Others will be less competitive and will cost you less.

For example "new and used books" may be too competitive and may require you to pay, let's say, 1 dollar per click. However, phrases like "used rare books", while still relevant to your product, may be less in demand and have a lower cost per click (for example, $0.25). You can select a large group of keyphrases to trigger your ad (you are not limited to just one).

Some keyphrases will perform better than others, and you may add or delete keyphrases at any point in your campaign. In any case, Google will let you determine the maximum cost per click you are willing to pay, as well as the maximum daily amount you want to spend in your campaign, thus giving you a significant measure of control over your ad expenditures. AdWords also offers a keyword tool to help you choose keyphrases; this tool will show you keyphrase options that you may not have thought about.

(Tips: be sure to read Google AdWord's learning centre, tutorials, demos and FAQ's to better understand how AdWords work, before jumping on board).

How Many Dollars per Click Should You Offer?

That depends on the gross profit of your product and your conversion rate. While it is easy to determine the gross profit of your product, it is trickier to estimate your conversion rate (a brief period of trial an error may be necessary before you can get a real feel for it).

Assuming that each book you sell entitles you to a $20 commission, and considering an average conversion rate of 2%, every 100 clicks on your ad will generate 2 sales, or a $40 profit. Your break even point will therefore be $0.40 per click. If you offer more than that, you will on average lose money. If you offer less, you will on average make money.

If the Google AdWord's average cost per click for your selected keyphrase is, for example, $0.20, you have found a bargain, since it is way below your breakeven point.

A Guide to Google AdWords

Fortunately, there are good resources out there to help you make the most out of your Google Adwords campaigns.

Do you know about Google AdWords yet?

Google has a new system that makes it possible, for the first time in the history of the world, to deposit five bucks, write a couple of ads, and instantly get access to over 100 million people - in less than 10 minutes.

It's called Google AdWords and it's hot. In factit may be the first and best thing to do to get traffic toyour site.

But it's not always as easy as I just made it sound -AdWords has some nuances, and some people have a rough time at first. Perry Marshall has written a veryhelpful e-course called "5 days to success with GoogleAdWords" and there's no charge for it. You can findout about it here: